RULH celebrates Black History Month

The students at Ripley Middle School participated in National Black History Month during February.
“We are very proud of some of the essay’s our students wrote this year for Black History Month,” said Chris Smith, principal at the Middle School in Aberdeen. “These kids live in an area where there is so much history on slavery, the Underground Railroad, Parker House and more.
“Our students’ recognition of black history this year has been phenomenal.”
Many of the students wrote essay’s on African Americans who achieved great things in their lives, changing the United States forever.
Bailey Davis (6th grade) wrote the following essay on Harriet Tubman, whom she refers to as an American Hero…
….Harriet Tubman is an American hero. Harriet was brave, she traveled 90 miles alone in the woods with people searching after her.
She was sneaky she kept going back into slave territory. Harriet was also fearless went back for anyone that wanted to escape. She was proud, she saved over 900 slaves. She would do anything to help her family. She was selfless she risked her life for everyone else’s freedom.
Ciara Covert, (5th grade) wrote her essay on Dorothy Vaughan…
….Dorothy Vaughan was born on September 20, 1910 in Kansas City. She went to college at Wilberforce University in 1929.
Dorothy was played the role of Octavia Spencer in the movie “Hidden Figures”
She was hired from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in 1943 and was retired in 1971. In an era when NASA is led by an African American man (Administrator Charles Bolden) and a woman (Deputy Administrator Dava Newman) and when recent NASA Center Directors come from a variety of backgrounds, it’s easy to overlook the people who paved the way for the agency’s current robust and diverse workforce and leadership.
Those who speak of NASA’s pioneers rarely mention the name Dorothy Vaughan, but as the head of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronatic (NACA’s) segregated West Area Computing Unit form 1949 until 1958, Vaughan was both a respected mathematician and NASA’s first African-American manager.
Congratulation to both Covert and Bailey for their well-written, informative essay’s on black history.